MURDER INVESTIGATION IN NIGERIA: IMPLICATION FOR FORENSIC SCIENCE APPLICATION

Olusoga Tasiru Shittu, Geshina Ayu Mat Saat

Abstract


This study presents a systematic review of studies related to murder and criminal investigation, policing, and implications for forensic science application in Nigeria. A literature search was done in the English language, using primary and secondary keywords; such as murder investigation, forensic science, policing, criminal investigation, standard operating procedures guiding murder investigation, and application of forensic science in Nigeria. Four academic databases selected for the study were: SAGE Online, Wiley Online Library, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Following the inclusion and exclusion criteria earmarked for the study, 16 selected online published materials published between 2012 and 2022 met the predetermined criteria. These articles are either surveys, reviews, case studies, expert opinion materials, or theoretical articles. Central to the findings of these articles is that the application of forensic science in murder investigations in Nigeria is still suboptimal, accounting for lots of cold and unresolved murder cases across the country. In addition, there are other issues such as inadequate legislation governing forensic science application in Nigeria, lack of forensic skills and poor capacity development of Nigerian police, and non-adherence to forensic validated procedures during murder investigations. Gaps identified from these studies suggest a need for research focusing on the importance of suspect forensic profiling, a criminal investigative tool that can aid in narrowing down the suspect pool which has become a perennial problem in Nigeria's justice system as evidenced by the rising number of murder suspects across the country’s penitentiaries. This would make murder investigation more effective and efficient for criminal justice experts.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


criminal justice, forensic science, murder investigation, policing, suspect profiling

Full Text:

PDF

References


Aborisade, R. A. (2018). Unsolved murders and the investigative failures of the Nigerian police force: Security and sociopolitical implications. African Security Review. 27(2) Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325705338_Unsolved_murders_and_the_investigative_failures_of_the_Nigerian_police_force_Security_and_sociopolitical_implications

Alisigwe, O. J. & Oluwafemi, O. M. (2019). The state of forensic science in crime investigation and administration of justice in Nigeria. Int J Sci Eng Res, 10(7), 1720-1725.

Ayodeji, A. (2019, September 4). Poor funding hindering Nigerian police performance – CLEEN Foundation. Premium Times, Retrieved from https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/350610-poor-funding-hindering-nigerian-police-performance-cleen-foundation.html?tztc=1

Ezegbogu, M. O., & Omede, P. I. O. (2023). The admissibility of fingerprint evidence: An African perspective. Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal, 56(1), 23-41.

Kamaluddin, M. R., Othman, A., Ismail, K., & Saat, G. A. M. (2016). Aggression profiles of incarcerated Malaysian male murderers. Akademika, 86(2), 137-147.

Lawrence, O. A., Christopher, A., & Mudiaga, Z. (2016). Forensic medicine: the story, clinical nexus and challenges of the practice in Nigeria. International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigation, 2(1), 1-4.

Nte, N. D. (2012). An evaluation of the challenges of forensic investigation and unsolved murders in Nigeria. African journal of criminology and justice studies, 6(1), 9.

Nte, U. N., Nte, N. D., Enokie, B. K., & Bienose, O. (2019). DNA Profiling and the Challenges of Crime Management in Nigeria: The Case of The Nigeria Police Force. JILS, 4, 189.

Nwachokor, F. N. (2016). A forensic study of unnatural death in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. International Journal of Forensic Medical Investigation, 3(1), pp. 8-19.

Nwafor, C. C., Ekpo, M. D, Nwafor, N. N., Obafunwa, J. O. (2019). Death in the workplace; Accident or homicide? The role of death scene examination. Ann Trop Pathol, Vol. 10, pp. 68-73.

Nwawuba, S. U., & Akpata, C. B. N. (2020). Awareness level on the role of forensic DNA database in criminal investigation in Nigeria: A case study of Benin city. Journal of Forensic Science and Research, 4, 007-014.

Nwawuba, S. U., Khadija, A. M., Bukola, A. T., Precious, I. O., & Davidson, E. A. (2020). Forensic DNA profiling: autosomal short tandem repeat as a prominent marker in crime investigation. The Malaysian journal of medical sciences: MJMS, 27(4), 22.

Nwokolo, M. & Ivongbe, M. I. (2022). A Review of the forensic science evidence admissibility for handling criminal prosecution in Nigeria. Law Audience Journal, 3(4), 284-300.

Obafunwa, J. O. (2015). Forensic Investigation of Mass Disasters in Nigeria: A Review. The Nigerian Medical Journal, 56(1), pp. 1-5.

Obafunwa, J. O. et al. (2018). Medical evidence and proof of cause of death in Nigerian courts. Medicine, Science and the Law, 58(2), pp. 122-134.

Oguntunde, P. E., Ojo, O. O., Okagbue, H. I., & Oguntunde, O. A. (2018). Analysis of selected crime data in Nigeria. Data in brief, 19, 1242-1249. Retrieved from Retrieved from https://www.data-in-brief.com/article/S2352-3409(18)30649-8/pdf

Ope-ogunseitan, M. (2016). Forensics: the missing link in Nigerian criminal investigation. Journal of the Mooting Society University of Lagos 2, pp. 67-83.

Otu, N. & Elechi, O. O. (2018). The Nigeria police forensic investigation failure, Journal of Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation, 9(1), pp. 1-8.

Sarki, Z. M. & Geshina, A. M. S. (2020). Nigeria Police and Forensic Criminal Investigation: A review of some critical issues, International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences, 15(1), pp. 21-34.

Sylvester, O. & Agbeyi, M. (2019). The use of forensic evidence in criminal investigations (A study of Nigeria police force). International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 5(2), 91-98. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Osugba-Sylvester-Phd/publication/370925041




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejsss.v9i6.1688

Copyright (c) 2024 Olusoga Tasiru Shittu, Geshina Ayu Mat Saat

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2016 - 2023. European Journal Of Social Sciences Studies (ISSN 2501-8590) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and  Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.